2024-03-31-accounts - Let's Talk About Loss

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Charity Name Let’s Talk About Loss	Charity Name Let’s Talk About Loss	Charity Name Let’s Talk About Loss

31stMarch 2024	Charity no (if any)	1195258

1-2
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended31/03/2024.

Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: 4th December 2024 Name: Janice Willis FCCA Relevant professional Association of Chartered Certified Accountants qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: Eleve11 Consulting T/A Cloud Eleven Accountants Palamos House, 66-67 High St, Lymington Hampshire, SO41 9AL Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

October 2018

IER

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

October 2018

IER

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

From 1st April 2023 To 31st March 2024

Charity name:

Let’s Talk About Loss

Charity registration number:

Registered Charity No. 1195258 (Charity Commission for England and Wales) Registered Charity No. SC051599 (Scottish Charity Regulator)

Objectives and Activities

Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document

The objects of Let’s Talk About Loss are;

To relieve the suffering and isolation of persons aged 18-35 in the UK suffering from bereavement or loss by the provision of peer support and advice for such persons.

Charitable purpose 12; The relief of those in need, by reason of age and bereavement. This means giving recognition, support and time to a specific age range who have faced the loss of someone important to them.

Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts.

Meet ups (activities)
In total, we ran 133 meet ups during the year, with 4 new groups starting in Portsmouth, Halifax, Newquay and Southampton. This took us from 35 to 39 active groups across the UK.
This year we also ran themed meet ups , all hosted virtually on Zoom, for specific moments in time or types of loss. There were 4 of these meet ups, which focussed on Complex / Traumatic Loss, Fathers Day, Christmas and Young Grievers who are also Young Carers.
Finally, we continued our student meet up project, with one group at London School of Economics. This group continues to go well, and we anticipate scaling up our Students Talk About Loss project during 2025-26.
Our Creative Writing About Loss group continued with a volunteer, Bridget Hamilton, running this. It continues to be really successful with regular Zoom meetings and people sharing their own creative writing frequently in the Facebook group. (activity)
Our Bereavement Book Club continued this year and increased the number of meetings with one regular volunteer, Lauren Harris. The group ran several successful book giveaways on our social media which helped grow the group. (activity)
On our blog , we published 16 posts during the year with a variety of advice and support for young grievers. Emma Foley continued as our volunteer Blogs Assistant and did an excellent job of editing and uploading new blogs. (activity)
We continued our three Advisory Boards which help us to learn from young grievers in under-served communities and be a truly user-led organisation. The three Advisory Boards focus on Racial Equity, Accessibility and LGBTQ+ communities. These are currently under review in order to increase engagement of the board members, including encouraging active participation from trustees to act in a sponsor role. (project)
During the year, we worked with Executive Advisors on distinct projects where their skills, expertise and knowledge could help the organisation. (project)
We continued to ensure that all our volunteers completed mandatory safeguarding training . During the financial year, there were three safeguarding reports made, all of which were handled internally to a successful outcome. (service)
Social media - this continues to be the main way that people find out about Let’s Talk About Loss and we continue to publish engaging content for our target audience. We started a TikTok account this year, and continued to post on Instagram and Facebook. We stopped posting on Twitter (X) due to the toxic nature of the platform. (activity)

Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit

All trustees have had regard for the guidance provided by the Charity Commission , using the online resources on a number of occasions to aid the creation of processes and protocol.

Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole.

Elizabeth (Beth) French continued her employment as Director 14 hours a week to run the charity. Beth also received organisational leadership coaching through BetterUp , paid for by the generous funders Queen’s Commonwealth Trust , which was particularly useful for growing her leadership skills.
In early 2024, we identified that the charity’s capacity needed to increase and we put out a job advert for a Community Engagement Officer on 1st March 2024. During the end of this financial year, we were still in the application stage of the process, and in total received 418 applications due to the inclusive, accessible nature of the role.
During this year, the charity totalled over 70 volunteers, all of whom have experience of losing someone at a young age. These volunteers served across a range of activities:
Meet up hosting
Host Coordinators, supporting our Hosts
Advisory board members
Blog management
Book Club and Creative Writing group facilitation
Men Talk About Loss campaign planning
A highlight for the year was a win for our Persevering Podcast at the British Podcast Awards ! From January 2021 to January 2023, a group of young grievers formed our Rollercoaster Project Youth Board (funded by The Co-op Foundation ) and created the Persevering Podcast together. It was entered into the 2023 British Podcast Awards longlist, and the Youth Board members were delighted that it was then shortlisted in two categories - Wellbeing and Editor’s Choice (Specialist). We were grateful that Youth Board members and our Project Lead were able to attend the Awards ceremony in September 2023 and find out on the night that Persevering had won the Editor’s Choice Specialist Award, which was incredible for an amateur podcast made by a group of young grievers, for young grievers.
In November 2023, we ran an in-person gathering for our Men Talk About Loss campaign at the Lucky Saint pub in London. The rapper Shocka and the mental health campaigner Ben West spoke at the evening, and we were thrilled that many of the men who attended the event were brand new to Let’s Talk About Loss and have since connected in with regular meet ups. We also filmed the

event which was useful content for our Men Talk About Loss campaign and helps us break down the stigma of men talking about grief.

We launched an email newsletter for meet up updates this year, in order to make the communication of our meet up dates and times easier. This started in May 2023 and had nearly 100 subscribers by March 2024.
We were particularly proud of our inclusive social media work this year, with our freelance Social Media Manager Chrissie Huntley, who joined us in 2023, creating content around Pride and Black History Month. We prioritised amplifying the voices of specific community members and ran many successful weekend takeovers. We also started a new series on Instagram called ‘Is It Just Me?’ where our followers proposed anonymous questions about some of the complexities of grief, and others commented with encouragement and similar stories. This fed into our wider social media strategy that our channels are in of themselves places where people can find support in their grief, and not simply places to broadcast organisational updates. Chrissie’s monthly monitoring and evaluating reports build a learning culture where the charity can then reiterate for even more impact.
During the 2023-24 year, Let’s Talk About Loss thanked Trustees Deborah Bradley and Rebecca Field, who stepped down. We welcomed two new Trustees - Latoya Laryea, as Treasurer Trustee, and Elisha Matthews, who has a fundraising background.
As a team, we met in London in the summer of 2023 for our first Trustee Away Day, attended by our Trustees and our Director. This was a great day of strategising and deepening our connections.
We deepened our commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, continuing our work with Taz Rasul, an inclusion consultant. Through the year, she built on the work started early in 2023, creating a document with guidance for Let’s Talk About Loss volunteers on inclusivity, working with our Advisory Board Chairs to strengthen the work of these Boards, and training our team further on accessibility.
To network and grow the knowledge of Let’s Talk About Loss, Director Beth French attended the inaugural Suicide and Co Sector Summit in February 2024, and met with many other grief charities and sector leaders.
During this financial year, we were grateful for pro-bono support from two corporate companies:
LX Local created our Host Onboarding Journal, an interactive PDF that guides our volunteer Hosts through their first 90 days in the role, and aims to increase their confidence and increase volunteer engagement and retention. We are so grateful to everyone at LX Local for their commitment and enthusiasm for this project.
Hargreaves Lansdown were partnered with us through the Technology Volunteers platform and have started work on researching a new community platform that Let’s Talk About Loss can use, instead of Facebook which many young grievers don’t want to use.
The charity was chosen as the charity partner for an incredible short film, Good Boy, directed by Tom Stuart and starring Ben Whishaw. Our Director Beth was invited onto set while filming, and met with Tom and Ben to share the aims of Let’s Talk About Loss. After the film was completed, it was viewed at Let’s Talk About Loss meet ups to start important conversations about grief.
Fundraising
In total, we raised £54,437 during this financial year.
We were mostly reliant on grant funding. During this financial year we received our second and an additional third installment of an unrestricted grant towards core costs from The Tudor Trust . Due to internal changes at The Tudor Trust they closed for new grants, and awarded each of their existing grantees a further one year of funding, with a small cost-of-living uplift. This means we received £21,000 of unrestricted income from The Tudor Trust during this financial year for which we were incredibly grateful.
We received £10,000 from The National Lottery Awards for All - England to put on three Big Meet Ups during the 2024-25 financial year. We are looking forward to delivering these events as a way for young grievers to connect with others who understand loss and grief.
We launched new bereavement cards during this financial year, as a way to diversify our income. These are sold on Etsy.
During this year, individuals took on challenges to fundraise for Let’s Talk About Loss. We started a new partnership with Skyline Events and had three skydivers fundraise for us - a huge thank you to Maisie, Megan and Caitlin who took on an exhilarating challenge and raised lots of money! Also a big thank you to Yvonne who ran the London Big Half Marathon and raised funds for us through this. We were pleased to raise more from community fundraising than we had at any point before.
We launched a new fundraising campaign, Sponsor our Hosts, this year, with the view to utilise the networks and connections of our local meet up Hosts to bring in funds. This did not perform well in the year and has been stopped while we review our fundraising strategy.
We continue to have a small number of supporters who give on a monthly basis, for whom we are incredibly grateful.

Structure, Governance and Management

Type of governing document

CIO - FOUNDATION

How is the charity constituted?

CIO

Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees Trustees are selected for experience and skills needed on the board, as well as knowledge and interest in the objectives.

Reference and Administrative details

Charity name

Let’s Talk About Loss

Other name the charity uses

LTAL

Registered charity number

1195258

Charity’s principal address

3 Beedon Way, Eastleigh, SO50 9RU

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Katherine Moreton	Chair
Latoya Laryea	Treasurer	From 22nd November 2023
Jonathan Salmon	NA
Rohit Sagoo	NA
Amy Lambert	NA
Sanisha Wynter	NA

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Elisha Matthews	NA	From 22nd November 2023

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)	Katherine Moreton
Full name(s)	Katherine Moreton
Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)	Chair

	LET'S TALK ABOUT	LOSS	LOSS	CIO No: 1195258	CC16a
		Receipts and payments accounts
	For the period from	01/04/2023 Period start date	To	Period end date 31/03/2024

Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ - - - 1,500 2,654 164 2,063 8,074 8,236 596 - - 21,000 -	Restricted funds to the nearest £	Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £
Lush Foundation		-	-	-	4,858
Proctor and Gamble		150	-	150	366
WESTERN POWER FOUNDATION				-	5,000
National Lottery Awards for All - England		10,000		10,000
Sir Robert McAlpine Strong Communities Fund				1,500
DONATIONS		-	-	2,654	5,383
PRODUCT SALES		-	-	164	1,347
WORKSHIPS/TALKS/MISC INCOME		-	-	2,063	452
CORPORATE FUNDRAISING				8,074	10,478
COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING				8,236	3,871
Governmentgrants		-	-	596	-
CO-OP #Iwill BEREAVEMENT Grant		-	-	-	-
MAGIC LITTLE GRANTS		-	-	-	500
NATIONAL SURVIVOR		-	-	-	-
TUDOR TRUST		-	-	21,000	-
VELANDIA		-	-	-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	44,287	10,150	-	54,437	32,255
	- -
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
		-	-	-
		-	-	-	-
*Sub total*	-	-	-	-	-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
	44,287	10,150	-	54,437	32,255
	308 - 212 4,616 639 3,357 2,118 - 912 13,749 3,292 1,204 751 3,109
OFFICE		-	-	-	-
TRAVEL		-	-	308	8
COST OF GOODS		-	-	-	-
POSTAGE		-	-	212	216
COST OF LOCAL GROUPS & EVENTS		150	-	4,766	10,081
ADVERTISING		-	-	639	-
COMMUNICATIONS (EMAIL/WEBSITE)		-	-	3,357	2,443
TRUSTEE EXPENSES, VOLUNTEER TRAINING AND MEETINGS		-	-	2,118	3,643
TALKS		-	-	-	-
MISC		-	-	912	8
WAGES			-	13,749	10,595
PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR		-	-	3,292	-
FUNDRAISING				1,204	690
INSURANCE		-	-	751	201
GOVERNANCE		-	-	3,109	925
**Sub total **	34,266	150	-	34,416	28,810
	- -
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
**Sub total **	-	-	-	-	-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
	34,266	150	-	34,416	28,810

	10,021	10,000	-	20,021	3,445
	39,623		-	-	-
		500	-	40,123	36,678
	49,644	10,500	-	60,144	40,123

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Unrestricted Restricted funds Endowment funds Details funds to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £

Categories

51,302	10,500	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
51,302	10,500	-
Agreement Error	OK Restricted funds to nearest £	OK
Unrestricted funds to nearest £		Endowment funds to nearest £
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
Fund to which liability relates	Amount due (optional)	When due (optional)
Unrestricted	743	22nd April 2024
Unrestricted	915	02nd April 2024
Unrestricted	1,008	01 December 2024
	-
	-
Print	Name
		Date of approval
Kate Moreton		10/12/24
Latoya Laryea		19/12/24